musings of a counselor

A fried egg on top and Spam

The other day I got to thinking, I have never tried SPAM. I mean really, why would that have ever been a staple in my diet or would I have any reason to try it. That all changed last night. I had kids make Spam sculptures at Young Life and decided to try some of the spam at the end. Let’s just say it does taste like meat, its bright pink, kinda peels in layers, and looks like playdoh. All that being said, I didn’t swallow very much and spit the rest of it out in chunks. Then I learned much more about Spam that I will share…

-Spam was developed by George A. Hormel & Co. and first marketed in 1937. When real meat was hard to come by why not eat chopped pork shoulder.
-Residents of Hawaii eat an average of four cans of SPAM per person per year, more than in any other place on Earth. Probably in the galaxy too.
-SPAM is sold in over 99% of U.S. grocery stores. Want to find it, look on the Peanut Butter/canned drink aisle (next to the canned sardines)
-Over 60 million people in the U.S. eat SPAM. Most of them shop out of 7-11 where they play elevator music.
-SPAM is made in two U.S. locations – Austin, Minnesota, and Fremont, Nebraska (typical) – and seven other countries: England, Australia, Denmark, Phillipines, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
-The 1 billionth can of spam was sold in 1959. That means that they have sold more than McDonalds.
-Who knew that Spam had a mascot? His name (they’re creative) Spammy, the miniature pig.
-Richard LeFevre holds the world record for eating SPAM by eating 6 pounds in 12 minutes. And he probably ralphed it all up about 2 minutes later.

So what’s in it? Ingredients:

Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added.
Salt (for binding, flavor, and firmness)
Water (aid in mixing)
Sugar (flavor)
Sodium Nitrite (color and as a preservative so it can sit on shelves for years at a time)